[ here he laughs, eases back into the water more, and then says to the ceiling ]
My first love was one of my father's serving maids -- when I was three. [ hee ] There have been people I've liked since then. But... [ well, when he was growing up, he hadn't had friends his own age, until... afterthought, but true: ] Oh, and I had a fiancee, so I knew there wasn't any point in giving someone else chocolate on Valentine's Day.
[ and then, after his father's murder, he'd gone off to live on a military base, and there hadn't been anyone else his own age again for a long time. ]